Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T08:11:30.260Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

COMMODITIES, OWNERSHIP, AND THE EUSTACE DIAMONDS: THE VALUE OF FEMININITY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2010

Jen Sattaur*
Affiliation:
Aberystwyth University

Extract

In an 1867 treatise on diamonds and precious stones, Harry Emanuel writes the following:

[I]n the process of cutting, flaws and imperfections are often laid bare, which go much deeper than the appearance of the rough diamond would predict; and, on the other hand, the colour, apparent in the rough stone, is sometimes found to arise from the presence of flaws or specks, which are removed in cutting, thus leaving the stone white. (70)

From such a description, it is easy to see the parallel to the female condition, and particularly the female condition, as it is popularly portrayed in the mid-nineteenth century. With the emphasis on purity and hidden flaws, it is not difficult to understand why the diamond could hold such symbolic significance for the female wearer, by functioning as an indicator not only of personal wealth, but of moral worth. Trollope's The Eustace Diamonds (1871), a novel which can be said to revolve around this metaphor, is essentially a novel about worth: absolute vs. transitory worth, actual vs. symbolic worth, and especially monetary vs. moral worth. Lizzie's character, the legal issues surrounding the diamonds, and the convoluted marriage arrangements which are perpetuated by or affected by the presence of the diamonds are all, in one way or another, concerned with the different types of value – moral, symbolic, monetary, etc. – placed upon commodity objects: objects which, by their very nature, can never be permanently owned, as their value lies in their exchangeability. I will return later to a discussion of the diamonds themselves. There has been considerable recent commentary on the role of commodities – whatever their worth – and of commodity culture within Trollope's novel; such readings, however, concentrate on the purely symbolic role played by commodity objects – and primarily the diamonds – in the novel; it is worth, by contrast, examining how Trollope utilizes the discourses and associations of actual commodity objects as he deploys them within his fictional world. This paper will examine the ways in which Trollope uses four commodity objects in particular – books of poetry, hunting horses, the safe box, and finally, the Eustace diamonds themselves – and the contemporary discourses surrounding them to defend the essentially mercenary character of Lizzie as a woman shaped by the demands that a commodity-driven society places upon her.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

WORKS CITED

“Art of Dress.” Quarterly Review Vol. LXXIX, No. CLVIII (Dec. 1846): 372–399.Google Scholar
Beeton, Isabella. Hints to Housewives. London: Ward, Lock, 1928.Google Scholar
Cohen, William A.Trollope's Trollop.” Novel: A Forum on Fiction 28.3 (1995 Spring): 235–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Barrera, Mdm. Gems and Jewels: Their History, Geography, Chemistry, and Ana, From the Earliest Ages Down to the Present Time. London: Richard Bentley, 1860.Google Scholar
Ellis, Mrs. The Daughters of England: Their Position in Society, Character, and Responsibilities. London: Fisher, Son, (c)1842.Google Scholar
Emanuel Harry, F.R.G.S. Diamonds and Precious Stones: Their History, Value, and Distinguishing Characteristics with Simple Tests for their Identification. 2nd ed. London: John Camden Hotten, Picadilly, 1867.Google Scholar
Forty, Adrian. Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750. London: Thames and Hudson, 1995.Google Scholar
“Great Exhibition.” Times, Thursday, 4 Sept. 1851; pg. 5; Issue 20898; col C.Google Scholar
“Hints to Ladies.” Ladies’ Monthly Magazine: The World of Fashion, Literature, Music, The Opera and the Theatres 479 (Nov. 1863).Google Scholar
Lindner, Christoph. “Trollope's material girl.” Yearbook of English Studies (Modern Humanities Research Assn) 32 (2002): 3651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Logan, Thad. The Victorian Parlour. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001.Google Scholar
Miller, Andrew H. Novels Behind Glass: Commodity Culture and Victorian Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruskin, John. Sesame and Lilies: Three Lectures. 4th ed. Orpington: George Allen, 1880.Google Scholar
Surtees, Robert S. The Analysis of the Hunting Field: Being a Series of Sketches of the Principle Characters that Compose One. London: Rudolph Ackermann, 1846.Google Scholar
Surtees, Robert S.. Town and Country Papers. The R. S. Surtees Society: 1993.Google Scholar
Trollope, Anthony. The Eustace Diamonds. Ed. McCormack, W. J.. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998.Google Scholar
Trollope, Anthony. Hunting Sketches. London: Ernest Benn, 1952.Google Scholar
Valverde, Mariana. “The Love of Finery.” Victorian Studies 32.2 (Winter 1989): 169–88.Google Scholar